Babysitter Ben
by EsmeAmelia
Summary: Fluffy story where teenage Ben babysits toddler Rey.


AN: Everyone knows I don't own Star Wars but I keep saying it anyway. Here's a fluffy story where Ben babysits his little cousin (obviously before he turned to the dark side – and yes I know we don't know for sure whether or not Rey is Luke's daughter, but that's my current belief and I'm sticking to it until proven wrong or right). I'm also using my OC Rianna (from my various other fics) as usual for Rey's mother.

"Babysitter Ben"

By EsmeAmelia

"Ben! Ben! BEN!"

Three-year-old Rey came running up to her cousin, her feet pattering across the floor, her arms wide.

"Hey kiddo!" exclaimed Ben, scooping the child into his arms. "Are you excited for our night together?"

"Yup!" shouted Rey, her grin growing wider when she noticed her aunt and uncle entering the apartment behind Ben, Leia in a fancy white dress and Han in an uncomfortable blue suit. "Unca Han! Auntie Leia!"

Han grinned and ruffled his little niece's hair. "You be good for your cousin, Rey."

"Yeah," said Rey as her parents entered the room, also dressed in finery for the senators' ball that Ben fortunately wouldn't have to attend (and he would get twenty credits out of not attending as well). The droids followed, having also been asked to attend the ball seeing as they had been important to the Rebellion.

"Rey's schedule is in the kitchen," said Luke's wife Rianna, gently taking her daughter from Ben. "Are you ready for the challenge?"

Ben shrugged. "Hey, I've got the Force to help me babysit."

Leia laughed. "Well just make sure you get your homework done."

"Master Ben, are you absolutely certain that you can handle little Mistress Rey?" 3PO asked. "She can be _quite_ mischievous – perhaps R2 and I should stay behind to help you."

"Nah," said Ben, "I can handle it."

. . .

Almost before Ben knew it, the adults and droids had left for the ball and he was alone with his cousin. "Well," he said in his most "kid-friendly" voice, "let's go see the schedule your parents left."

"Mommy an' Daddy comin?" Rey asked as she followed her cousin to the kitchen.

"Yes," said Ben, "but not for a while. It's just the two of us for now."

"We gonna play?"

"Of course!"

"Yay! I wanna play now!"

"Hold on, cuz," said Ben. "I have to look at the schedule first."

"No, I wanna play _now!"_

Ben took a deep breath. "This will only take a minute, Rey."

The schedule left on the fridge seemed pretty simple. Supper for both of them was in the food heater, one of Rey's favorite holofilms was all set up in the holovid, her bedtime was in three hours, then after that Ben would have free time to do his homework.

"All right, Rey," he said as he looked in the food heater, "we've got soup for supper!" He took out one of the warm bowls of soup and sniffed it in an exaggerated manner. "Mmm, it smells delicious! Why don't you sit at your table so we can eat?"

"I wanna play!" Rey repeated.

"We'll play _after_ supper," Ben said as he set the bowl on Rey's kiddie table and placed a spoon and napkin next to it. "Now come on, don't you want some delicious soup?"

"I want ice cweam."

Ben sighed as he set up his own bowl of soup on the kiddie table next to Rey's and sat on the floor by the table. "Well if you come sit down and eat your soup, you can have some ice cream afterwards."

Rey sat in her kiddie chair, but she wrinkled her nose at the soup. "Soup _yucky!"_

"What? Come on, it's not yucky – it's good for you." Ben took a spoonful of his own soup, and though it tasted rather bland, he gave his cousin a wide smile. "Mmmm, this is _delicious!_ Don't you want some?"

"No," said Rey. "I want ice cweam!"

"Ice cream _later!"_ said Ben, taking Rey's spoon and filling it with soup. "Now come on, have some soup."

"No!"

"Okay," said Ben, "but look!" He waved the spoon towards Rey's mouth like a starship. "Heeerrre comes the X-Wing flying into the hangar!"

Rey kept her mouth firmly shut and flinched away from the spoon.

Wasn't making the X-Wing fly into the hangar the secret to making kids eat their food? "Come on Rey, Mommy and Daddy want you to eat your soup."

"No!"

"Rey, you have to."

"Ice cweam!"

Then Ben got an idea. "You _will_ eat your soup," he said, waving his hand in front of her.

"No!"

The teenager sighed. "Well, that was worth a try."

"I want ICE CWEAM!" Rey demanded, her lips stuck out in a pout.

Ben sighed for the third time. "Well you can't have ice cream unless you eat your soup."

"You _mean!"_

"No, I'm not mean. You have to eat your soup because it's healthy and ice cream isn't."

"NO!"

Ben gazed down at the two bowls of soup that would probably get cold soon. "All right then, if you won't eat your soup, I guess _I'll_ have to eat it so it won't go to waste." He picked up Rey's spoon again. "Here I go, I'm gonna eat _all_ the soup by myself!"

Suddenly Rey looked horrified. "No! _My_ soup!"

"Really? Then are you gonna eat it?"

Rey nodded rapidly.

"All right," said Ben, "then we can have some ice cream later."

. . .

After supper (and dessert), Ben headed for the living room with Rey toddling beside him. "Why don't we watch your holofilm, Rey?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Rey. "And dance!"

"Dance?"

Suddenly Rey shoved a toy Wampa into Ben's arms. "We watch an' dance!"

"Uh, okay." Ben shrugged as he turned on the holovid and Rey picked up a toy womp rat.

It turned out that the holofilm was a sing-along and _dance-_ along film, and Rey had apparently watched it enough times that she had all the songs memorized. The film was also hosted by a puppet Wampa and a puppet womp rat . . . for some reason. Well, at least that explained the toys.

"Ben! Dance!" As the first song started, she held the toy womp rat over her head and began spinning around. "Dance!"

Ben twisted his mouth, looking at the big eyes of the toy Wampa he was holding. "Uh, I'm not a very good dancer, maybe I should just watch you."

"No!" said Rey. "You dance too!"

Ben sighed. In the interest of not causing a tantrum, he held the toy Wampa over his head and began awkwardly spinning around while Rey sang along with "The Spinning Dance" as best she could in her cute little voice. Of course, it wasn't long before Ben started getting dizzy even though Rey was still spinning as if she could do it all day.

"Spin spin spinnin free," Rey sang along with the holovid, "spin for you and spin for me!"

How long was this spinning dance going to last? Ben was beginning to feel like he would fall over.

Towards the end of the song, the music got faster and faster along with the spinning. Rey burst out in giggles between attempts at singing along while Ben was struggling to stay on his feet.

"Spin spin spin," Rey and the holofilm sang together, "and now we FALL!"

They both fell, Rey erupting in giggles and Ben wanting to vomit.

"Well . . ." Ben said between gasps, "that was _quite_ a dance." He closed his eyes. "Now how about we rest for a minute?"

"NO!" shouted Rey. "We gotta dance some more!"

Ben groaned. "Okay, let's dance some more . . . but no more spinning."

. . .

"Where's Ben? Where Ben go? Hmm . . ."

Ben smiled to himself behind the couch, suspecting that Rey already knew where he was but wanted to expand the seeking fun.

"Hmmm, where is Ben?" Suddenly her feet pattered towards the couch and she jumped up to her cousin. " _Dere_ he is!"

Ben grinned at his cousin. "Yup, yup, you got me!" he said as he got to his feet. "Now it's your turn to hide!"

Rey squealed and ran off before Ben even started counting.

. . .

Luke and Rianna's note had said that Rey was "mostly" potty trained, but she still wore a diaper to bed. Ben had assumed that Rey was used to wearing her diaper to bed so she wouldn't complain about it, but he quickly learned not to assume anything with a toddler.

"No!" Rey snapped as soon as Ben got out the diaper. She folder her arms and stomped her feet, wearing only her pajama top and the panties she had worn during the day. "I don' wanna diaper!"

"Rey," Ben said as calmly as he could manage, "your mommy and daddy say you need to wear your diaper to bed."

"No!" Rey repeated, stomping her feet again. "Diapers for _babies!_ I a BIG girl!"

Ben took a deep breath. "Yes, you _are_ a big girl, but you still need to wear your diaper."

"NO!"

"Come on Rey, you don't want to pee on the bed, do you?"

"I won't!"

"You don't know that."

Rey pointed up at her cousin. " _You_ wear diaper!"

Where in the galaxy did Rey get _that_ idea? What went through three-year-olds' brains? "All right," Ben finally said, "I _will."_ He wiggled the diaper onto his head. "There, see? Diapers aren't just for babies."

Rey burst into giggles so loud that it sounded like she was a few seconds away from getting hiccups.

Ben was thankful no one else was around to see this as he yanked the diaper off his head. "All right, since I wore the diaper, will you wear it now?"

"O- _kay."_

. . .

After Ben read Rey her bedtime story and tucked her in, he turned on the recording of lullabies that her parents had provided and gently kissed her on the cheek. "Good night Rey, sleep tight." He attempted to leave her bedroom so he could get his homework done, but he was only a few steps away from the bed when Rey shouted "Stay!"

Ben groaned – he should have known putting Rey to bed wouldn't be so easy. "Rey, I have homework to do, so why don't you go to sleep now?"

"Sleep wif me!"

"Rey, I've got to do my homework . . ."

"I get bad dweam if you don sleep wif me!"

Ben suddenly found himself unable to argue with that. He _definitely_ knew what it was like to have bad dreams. "All right, all right, I'll sleep with you," he said as he climbed into the bed next to Rey.

Rey snuggled up next to him. "I love you, Ben."

Ben couldn't help but smile at that. "I love you too."

Okay, he thought, he could just stay until she fell asleep, then he could go do his homework. However, as the lullabies played on, he felt himself relaxing, his eyes slowly closing . . .

. . .

"Hey buddy, I'm guessin' your cousin wore you out."

Ben groggily opened his eyes to see his father grinning down at him with his mother, aunt, and uncle not far behind. "Huh?"

Luke chuckled slightly. "Well Ben, I'd say you earned your twenty credits."

"Twenty credits . . . wait, did I fall asleep?"

"Yup," said Leia. "But it looks like you got Rey to fall asleep too."

Ben felt his face reddening as he rolled over to face his little cousin, but the mattress creaking woke Rey up slightly. "Hi," she said in a drowsy voice, smiling at Ben.

Rianna leaned over and kissed her daughter's cheek. "Did you and Ben have a good time, sweetheart?"

"Mmm-hmm," said Rey, her eyes drooping again. "Ben wear a diaper on his head."

Ben flinched as he sat up, wishing he could use the Force to keep himself from reddening further.

"Don't be embarrassed, honey," said Leia. "It's okay to do silly stuff for kids. In fact, your dad once wore a diaper on his head for you too."

"What? He did?"

Han smirked, tilting his head a bit. "I'll tell you the story . . . after you do your homework, which I'm guessin' you didn't get around to."

"Oh _no!"_

THE END


End file.
